Critical Reading Skills

Time4Learning
http://www.time4learning.com/cont
actUs.htm
What is Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension skills

separates the "passive" unskilled
reader from the "active" readers.

Skilled readers don't just read, they

interact with the text.

Inner Monologue
Benefits of Good Reading
Comprehension
 Reading comprehension skills increase the
pleasure and effectiveness of reading.

 Strong reading comprehension skills help in all

the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives.

 All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and

high school are geared towards determining if
you are at your reading grade level and/or
college ready.
Congress decides to mandate good
reading skills
Congress charged the National Reading
Panel (NRP) with researching “the
effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read.“

They wanted to find out what methods

work best for reading improvement
Important areas
Five critical reading skills were found to be
very important for improvement:

Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension

(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon

Trail School District, Sandy, Oregon)
Tactics that work
We are using the following strategies
that work for reading comprehension:

 .Mind Mapping
. Direct instruction
. Use of decodable texts
. Embedded skills instruction
. Integrated reading and writing
. Access to quality literature
. Whole-class instruction
. Teacher modeling
Speed Reading
 Develop "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits
first

 Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to

input and scan information quickly

 Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an

unconscious level.

 In this version of speed reading, rather than the

incoming flow of information being the focus of attention,
active cognitive processes that organize information
dominate.

 See references to “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell

How to make Speed Reading Actually
Work
 The conscious focus of the brain is oriented
towards preparing a speech on the topic being
perused rather than trying to hope that text flying
by like the spray from a fire hose will make
sense
 It first requires the "student" to learn how to
speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely
high speeds.
 Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to
completely re-learn how to speed read again
from scratch.
Mind Mapping

Basically going through information in

order to find the major concepts

A student can create a visual Mind Map or

a Linear Mind Map

Really helps for studying for tests in

general
Chunking Reading

Basically highlighting chunked portions of

the reading in order to read faster

Students practice reading the highlighted

areas faster and faster until they reach the
desired speed and comprehension levels
Vocabulary

Vocabulary is important to not only

reading, but writing.

Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps

reading comprehension

It is also very important for the verbal SAT

 References

Time4Learning, http://www.time4learning.com/contactUs.htm

Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

Rocket Reader,
http://www.rocketreader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html

OSPI, http://www.k12.wa.us/
Exercise Time!

 New Vocabulary
 DICT, DIT, SPEC/SPIC, TEND, SEN,
NOM/NOUN/NOWN/NAM

 Mind Mapping EX
Exercise for your eyes

***See Sheets